Cedric's Return
by Mainstream Insanity
Summary: Cedric Diggory has managed to survive the killing curse, though he's been gone for 5 months. Ties into the Kiss of Death storyline where Barty Crouch Jr. is the new Dark Lord. Rating for later chapters. Almost all mentioned 'ships' are OCs.


It is difficult to truly express, in words, the amount of weirdness that had struck the young Cedric Diggory in these past few months. He had been the captain, seeker and star of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, the head of his house, a prefect and moving up in the politics of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He was even going to be one of the champions competing for the Triwizard Tournament and though there were struggles, both mental and physical, Cedric had been the reoccuring champion, both he and the boy-who-lived, the one and only Harry Potter. It had been that damned maze that wound him in his current predicament, the two boys had battled one another, their own demons and demons of all shapes and sizes within the maze itself, nevermind the spells that seemed to overtake them as the lust to win had almost overcome the both of them at the end of it.

The end. How blatant the statement can be made and in the same respect, grabbing that cup with Potter had not been the end but only the beginning of the things to come. The Dark Lord had risen and Cedric, for a moment, had seen him. As well as his little puppet, the slithering, slimy Wormtail carrying the lifeless form in a bundle as though it was a carefully guarded child. He had stepped forward then, reacting in the way he had throughout the tournament, protecting Harry. It had been a silent oath, made on the back of a piece of parchment in the secrecy of an empty classroom _I'll watch over you Potter_.....A promise which now seemed to spawn his death, as the spell wracked his body and attempted to steal his very soul from him, Cedric had stepped in front of Harry, being called the spare but still, his wand ready, steady and headstrong, he would have fought to the death for that boy. And not because the two of them belonged to the same school, they were friends of the hall, Cedric knew things that Harry would never reveal and sometimes it was better that way.

Even with his death at the hands of the disgusting creature, Cedric finds himself now wishing that he had grabbed the portkey, being the stubborn and determined leader and had snatched it out of Potter's hand and instead it was he that faced the Dark Lord and prevented him from being arisen. But everyone knows, what you wish...it will never come true in the way you want it.

There was very little of the next months that Cedric remembered, he looked dead, cold and pale in appearance, and yet he was not dead. He was merely....sleeping. In a sort of limbo world where he saw the world, he could hear the actions around him, the tears for his death, his father's anguish, the young man that he had sworn himself to a thousand and one times that he loved more than anyone else and the beautiful angel that was Rebecca Summers that he had never managed to confide those inner secrets to, the one regret he had and where those two first seemed to meet was over his casket, the ornate robes hanging off of his body, splashes of gold and emerald green all over him, the Hufflepuff flag was hanging across the room from this gathering, along with a mantle of the Hogwarts crest, Dumbledore had said a few words and Harry had knelt over him, yearning down to the body of the boy that was no longer there, that it had been him and not Cedric that was lying in this coffin. Cedric was lain to rest in the Diggory family crypt, and left there, buried under the ground and a stone lid thrust over him with care, he was left there alone in his thoughts, the darkness haunting him and all the while, the turning of the world seemed to affect him. He wasn't there all the way, nauseated in a way but slowed down dramatically, not even breathing, just there in silence and fear.

It had been 5 months since Cedric's untimely death, the summer break had passed and the next year beginning at Hogwarts, Cedric had really no clue how long at the time or the goings on at the school he so adored. What he did know was that somewhere in his 'rest' the crypt was resurrected with tears and ceremony and his father, Amos, had been buried beside his son. And as for Cedric's mother, so distraught with the grief of loosing her son and her husband, she found herself in St. Mungo's dealing with the grief of it all, finding herself in a sort of catatonic state, she had stated that until one of her loves rises and comes to bring her home, she will not accept that both of them have been taken from her. He's not all together sure how it happened but something seemed to finally click in Cedric's mind somewhere around the middle of the 5th month since his death, he didn't roll over, he didn't do much else then suddenly blink his eyes into the darkness, not moving right away but rather staring into the abyss that was surrounding him and cry out.

And yet there was no one that could save him.

It had been by his own hands that Diggory had managed to claw his way from the inside of the crypt and out into the crisp night air, it was October, near Halloween as he stumbled out onto the grass and took his first breath in what felt like an eternity. There he was, unaffected by the months underground save the mess that his robes had become from their journey out of the pit, the colors of them were still vibrant but equally they were dingy, tattered and filthy. As was his perfectly combed hair, now hanging in his eyes, it had continued to grow while he was down there and now he had enough there for a ponytail. He had to get back...he then had no clue about his mother or father, though turning on his heel his found out abruptly about his father, falling to his knees and crying tears that almost burned his cheeks as they fell. He lay there for a moment in agony before forcing himself to his feet again, it dawned on him suddenly how things had gone:

_The Triwizard Tournament had been a set up from the beginning, a way of getting young Harry into the Graveyard that would have been the last thing Cedric Diggory had ever seen. It was not how things should have gone, he was the spare as the Dark Lord had put it, he had no use and should be killed for it. Cedric still remembered the pain of the killing curse, a shot of green light from the end of a gnarled wand that propelled him backward and flipping, landing on the ground with a thud and then feeling, and yet not being able to react to the touch, Harry...the boy he promised to protect, he had stood to fight the monsters back from Harry and yet, when the real monster presented itself, he was so easily cast aside. Harry had managed to fight off Voldemort, with a little extra help, a sort of existence outside of his current reality, he had managed to be spiritual and guide Potter to victory, asking only that he be removed from that terrifying place, the tone in his voice was almost a plead rather than a request, for the first time, Cedric had fear in his heart._

_He had been returned to the grounds, hearing the cheers and hoots, people all around believing that Harry and he had both won until Fleur, sad, pathetic little Fleur screamed and they were all pulled back into the reality of the situation. Harry was pulled away from him by what would soon become the ultimate of the villans of that night, Barty Crouch Jr. A man they will never get rid of it seems, as he would soon learn, Crouch existed like a bug, he could not be gotten rid of. As for Cedric, his father was over his body, pleading, crying, begging, once or twice wishing it had been Harry there, and even in his vacant state, Cedric had wanted to rise up and tell his father that having Harry dead would do no one any good and he was glad it was him that took the fall...._

Cedric wrinkled his nose slightly, pushing himself from one rock to the next, managing to coax himself out of the cemetary only barely and even managing to reach one of the little pubs, stealing away into a room and requesting a change of clothes, no one asked, no one these days seemed to care. There was something darker about these times, what had happened in this summer that he was missing that changed things so much for the wizarding world? A Daily Prophet revealed that there was a new hand in Hogwarts and Cornelius Fudge was now in control over everything, he would "fix" the famed school, it was being run into the ground by the war-mongering Professor Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter should have remained expelled. Dear lord....all this and there's still the Dark Lord out there to be dealt with.

Disappearances

Deaths

Mysterious happenings

Muggle attacks....

The list continued on and yet no one wanted to admit what everyone ultimately knew was true....The Dark Lord had returned. The decision to return to Hogwarts was made easily enough, he had to get back there, he wanted to be at the forefront of the war, facing down the man who had tried to kill him and part of all of that was an attempt of talking to Dumbledore and finding out why he had survived in the first place. What had eventually happened however was that on his trek to the school, sloshing through the puddles and the mess of the grounds that had felled Professor Moody last year, he finally stepped to the doors of the school and stared them down for a moment. At his feet was another copy of the Prophet, now saying that the woman from the Ministry, a woman his father knew well and that had always bothered Cedric, a Miss Dolores Umbridge - there was something about that woman that always bothered him, she was far too happy, perky and pink for his liking but then again, she also seemed to think that he was a pampered, spoiled little boy who needed to be taught a lesson, so the feeling of hatred was mutual, - apparently Professor Umbridge had found herself annexed from the school by an Auror named Evelyn Monroe.

It was Ms. Monroe that he encountered first upon pushing the doors to the school open and attempting to make the trek up the stairs. Unfortunate as it was, Cedric was starved and weak from his 5 month ordeal, he had eaten little in the pub, having to trade one of his robes just for the room and one meal, he had little else on him that would pay for anything else. Exhausted and slipping back into that darkness again, Cedric found himself falling onto the stone steps, their cold face rising up to meet him as he dropped, his knees falling first before the rest of his body fell. He was cloaked in filth, the only bit of jewelry to show his family and his identity had been the Diggory family crest on his hand, a ring he was buried with, something he had once given the man of his dreams, the Ravenclaw who had so long ago stolen his heart and had refused to give it back to him again. It had been the funeral that he had gotten it back, the ring slid over his finger and sealed with a kiss, passionate and adoring but never to be reciprocated, according to what one originally believes to be the working of death.

Cedric lay there only a short period, the ghost Peeves had fluttered over his unconscious body and rushed to find the Headmaster to spout out his newfound knowledge, in his sing-songy little voice as Dumbledore and Ms. Monroe had been in a meeting about her now teaching the Defense Against the Dark Arts class and actually making it a little edgier, these children are needing to learn to no longer just be children with wooden sticks in their hands but young wizards and witches with well managed wands in their capable hands. Peeves sang to them of a foreign stranger, thought dead so long ago: _He's back he's back, the Diggy Diggory found his way home to Hoggywarts! Main hall where all can see, he's back again....oooh....._

The news had caused both to move swiftly down to the main entrance of the school where he lay and to immediately have him moved, the boy was alive, somehow...Evelyn was put in charge of him, he was alive and no one was to know as of the current moment, if the students were to learn of his survival....Cedric was moved into a private room, as private as those blocked off things are in Madame Pomfrey's infirmary where he was left to recooperate for a spell, he awoke a few times only to slip back into unconsciousness, held there by a spell to keep him rested rather than agitated. He had been there for some time now, sleeping, resting and finally, being able to sleep no longer, Cedric twitched, flexing his body slightly and casting the spell away from him, staring at Madame Pomfrey with that all too familiar Diggory smile.

"Am I home?"


End file.
